Orange Parking

During a recent visit to Beijing, a friend complained to me about the many cars with special license plates driving like they own the road and exacerbate the already bad traffic problems. These cars are from numerous army forces and ministries of the central government. In China they are issues special license plates to identify their special status. These organizations often view themselves as far above the city government, not to mention the local police department who enforces the traffic laws. This was an occasion for me to brag about American where everyone follows the traffic laws. However that self-righteousness feeling did not last very long, until I was reminded by an incident on my own commute to work.
I work for a place where parking is tight. They issue three different parking permits that we have to display inside our wind shields. The three parking permits come in three distinct colors: green, blue and orange, with the orange permits exclusively reserved for upper-level management. While driving, the parking placard is easy to spot from the front of the card, but not from the back.
On this fateful morning, I made a stupid mistake of passing a car that has stopped for a pedestrian – it was technically a legal move because the pedestrian has passed my side of the road. The street becomes one lane just a few step after that intersection and by moving first, I got in front of the car that has to stop longer than me. Apparently my move had seriously offended the driver in the other car. She immediately started tailing me very closely. This gave me a good opportunity to notice the orange parking permit. At the next stop sign a couple of blocks down the road, while I was stopped, she zoomed ahead. I thought to myself “Thank goodness. That was over.” Since I don’t remember seeing her in any offices directly above me, I was pretty sure that was the last I would see that boss lady. Guess I was wrong.
When I arrived at the gate of my workplace, this boss lady apparently had arrived long enough to instruct the security guard to give me some hassle. The security guard waved me to the side and started telling me that he had received complaints that I was driving erratically. Luckily, a few “sorry, sir” and “yes, sir” was all it needed to end that exchange. The whole thing took less than two minutes.
The incident itself is not a big deal. However, once in a while, I cannot help but to remind myself to slow down and look around at that intersection just in case that boss lady is right in front of me again.
The moral of the story: don’t try to gain a space or two by cutting in front of other cars, you will probably get into some sort of trouble and ended up taking more time. Especially not to pass those cars with some sort of authority prominently displayed, no matter how small, their egos need more protection than the bald eagles – just leave them alone.

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1 John 2:16 For all that is in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not of the Father but is of the world.

Freedom of Gratitude

This Thanksgiving I should have a lot of great things to be thankful for. I said “should” because I have been distracted by too many details to feel the joy. That changed last Sunday when I saw the words “Freedom of Gratitude” projected overhead during the sermon. Yes, “having a sense of gratitude” frees me from those nitty-grittys that bother me, and reminding myself about what I have helps me with a more positive view of the surroundings. Last Thanksgiving, I wrote something about what I was thankful for at that time. This is a perfect time for me to write another one.
Let me start with the notable things in my family. I am very grateful that my family is in good health. Earlier today, I was on the phone with a colleague who was working at home. It turned out that he was at his parent’s house instead of his own house, because his parents are under the weather. At the same time, he was also baby-sitting his own kid who was interrupting him while we were on the phone. That definitely reminded me how lucky that I don’t have to any of that.
Both my wife and I have decent jobs. With the overall economic situation the way it is, many people are facing the tough situation of losing their jobs and their homes. We are very grateful to have both. I often complain about the commute, but a 40-minute commute to work is quite common around the area I live in. Compared with those facing much harder problems, this little commute problem is nothing.
It has been a banner for me at work. My nearly a decade’s work on a software package has been made public and started to help people from different part of the world. This has lead to some recognition for the software. I am very grateful for my boss who has worked hard to keep the work funded through some tough times. I am even more grateful to those creative people who find ingenious ways to use the software to make interesting applications.
It is about time for me to get going so I will stop here. The important thing to remember is “Be Thankful.” It costs nothing, but may do a lot of good.

Col 3:15 be ye thankful.

Mostly Asians

A couple of days back, I heard a local news report about a rally in support of Prop. 8 in 2008 California general election. The announcer described the rally as organized by a number of local churches and attended by a few thousand people. For whatever reason, he added "mostly Asians" after a brief pause. I can not tell whether it was the tone of his voice or something else, it really annoyed me. Was it wrong for that mostly Asian crowd to take a stand against the four judges who overruled the voice of people by invalidating Proposition 22? Was it wrong for that crowd to voice their support for traditional marriages? Or are Asians supposed to hide in their homes to let the main stream media decide what they are supposed to think?

I was trying to dig up some explanations about this "mostly Asians" comment, then I noticed something else, a survey of Asian American reported by Mercury News on October 15, 2008. The headline was "Survey: Asian-Americans overwhelmingly against outlawing gay marriage". The article explained that homosexuality is no long an issue of fundamental morality among Asian Americans, but instead Asian Americans sympathize with the homosexuals because many different Asian groups were oppressed by the majority at one time or another. Apparently, the homosexuals have played their role of victim so well that a lot of people are convinced that they are oppressed.

The simply fact is that homosexuals are not oppressed by anyone. In some places around the world, homosexual behavior is considered so vile that the perpetrators are put to death. However, that is not the case here in California. In certain cities, one almost is required to be a homosexual to be elected into an office. Granted that there are certain very low barriers to discourage perversion, for example, to buy alcohol in California, one has to show proof of age, or if you spit on the street, a police officer can give you a ticket. These are for the basic protection of the people. Both drug addicts and homosexuals are identified with a bad behavior, however, the fundamental difference is that a drug addict typically realise that there is something wrong and want to correct the problem or at least contain it. On the other hand, the homosexual community has been imposing on everyone else the notion that their behavior is normal and respectable. This is where they are wrong. They are not victims, but aggressors -- plotting and scheming to get everyone brainwashed.

That "mostly Asian" crowd did not buy into the homosexual propaganda, I am very happy for that. I felt proud to be an Asian when I saw some Asians braving the wind and rain, holding signs of "yes on 8" at a number of intersections around town. It gives me hope that most Asians in California still care a whole lot about morals.

PS: here is an good moral argument for the existence of God.

Rom 3:23 For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God

None of their business

When I heard the news that California Teachers Association (CTA) donated more than a million dollars to oppose Proposition 8 [MSN news, LA Times], my first reaction was “Proposition 8 is none of their business.” What does a teacher’s union have anything to do with gay marriage? This really got me curious.

On CTA’s web site, they give the following reasons for their position:

“CTA believes that all people should be allowed equal protections under the law. California’s constitution should guarantee the same freedoms and rights to everyone – no one group should be singled out and have their rights taken away. Proposition 8 mandates one set of rules for gay and lesbian couples and another set of rules for everyone else. That’s not fair. California laws should treat everyone equally.”

Their arguments basically rests on “equal protection” of law, but this claim of absolute “equal protection” is not valid. There is a very strict limit on what California Constitution protects. Very simply, not every kind of activity deserves “equal protection.” Clearly, there is no “equal protection” for murder. Well, one might say that this is explicitly prohibited - you would be surprised to know that California Constitution mentions the word “murder” only once and it is not “thou shall not murder.” The point is that reasonable people would agree that murder does not receive “equal protection” from the law, which proves that only some acts are protected.

California has many different ethnic groups from around the world and many of these groups have practices that do not receive “equal protection.” For example, honor killing is practiced in some places as close as St John’s, Newfoundland, Canada [The Vancouver Sun, June 11, 2007], and Jonesboro, Georgia [The Atlanta Journal, July 11, 2008], should we provide them “equal protection?” We also have many residents coming from Africa where female circumcision is practiced, should female circumcision receive “equal protection?” There are plenty of people came to California after many years of running slave factories elsewhere around the world and would be happy pick up their old businesses, should we give their businesses “equal protection?” I would image most people would not grant “equal protection” to these activities.

Because there are many activities that are not under “equal protection,” CTA’s main argument for supporting gay marriage is not valid. What could be the real reason behind CTA’s position? I can only guess.

I have always had a positive view of teachers and have benefited from numerous teachers who taught me. Teachers are loving and caring people. As a whole, they tend to be socially active. In California, they are also politically very active as well. Because of their loving nature, they tend to latch on to progressive ideas. Taking the War on Drugs as an example, the teachers are very active in educating our children about the harms of drugs. This is definitely the right things to do. However, in the case of gay marriage, their loving nature is leading them wrong. A very small but vocal group of gays has for years been portraying themselves as oppressed and outcast. As a society, we have made a lot of effort to accommodate their deviant behaviors. However, they are not happy with being tolerated; they want everyone to “respect” then choice and to regard their behaviors as “normal.” A few activist judges in California Supreme Court overruled millions of voters by striking down the gay marriage ban. Now, the California voters are left with the only way to assert their voice by amending the state constitution through Proposition 8. CTA’s aggressive stance against this voice is dreadfully unloving to the majority of voters.

CTA’s involvement in this political fight does not in any way benefit their members, nor the California education system. There is simply no reason why CTA need to be involved in this. On the contrary, the large sum they donated to fight Proposition 8 can be much better used to sponsor education related projects. Given that the kids in our schools are predominately from traditional households, the stance taken by CTA irritates the parents like me. California does not have the greatest schools, and there is a lot of funding issues just beyond the horizon. CTA would need the parents to support them in these upcoming budget battles. I wish the union would be a little smarter about where they spend their membership dues, at least not to irritate their biggest constituency.

A fundamental flaw in the “equal protection” argument is the lack of moral stands. In the US, the education system has removed all moral standards from itself. This leaves the moral relativism to dominate every level of the education system. There are good reasons to recognize the values of different cultures our residents came from. However, instead of taking the good and honorable aspects of these cultural practices, we get ourselves into the business of accommodating all sorts of strange things. The homosexual act is the most prominent example of these odd balls. The AIDS scare of the 1980’s made gays into a visible group. From then on, gays have played their role as victims very well and have been well rewarded for their efforts. Comparing gays to the drug users, the difference is night-and-day. Because of the lack of standards for right-or-wrong, even though both these two groups practice unhealthy behaviors for temporary pleasure, they have enjoyed very different consequences. One of them has gained many legal rights in the past few years and is on the verge of gaining a constitutional right, while the other are still a target of War on Drugs. My kids came back from school this Monday with red bracelets that reminded them of the War on Drugs. I can not stop wondering what bracelets they will come back with to remind them of gay marriage.

PS: Given that the teachers union has been quite active in pushing for gay marriage as a constitutional right, I am pretty sure that the teachers would be more than happy to push for commemorative activities of this “hard-fought” right in school. There is already 1^st grader taking Field Trip to lesbian Wedding in San Francisco, an bracelet is not that far down the road.

Lev 18:22Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is abomination.